EP0889410A3 - Method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices - Google Patents

Method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0889410A3
EP0889410A3 EP98305034A EP98305034A EP0889410A3 EP 0889410 A3 EP0889410 A3 EP 0889410A3 EP 98305034 A EP98305034 A EP 98305034A EP 98305034 A EP98305034 A EP 98305034A EP 0889410 A3 EP0889410 A3 EP 0889410A3
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
primary
data storage
switching circuit
storage devices
high availability
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP98305034A
Other languages
German (de)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0889410A2 (en
EP0889410B1 (en
Inventor
Fay Chong
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Sun Microsystems Inc
Original Assignee
Sun Microsystems Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Sun Microsystems Inc filed Critical Sun Microsystems Inc
Publication of EP0889410A2 publication Critical patent/EP0889410A2/en
Publication of EP0889410A3 publication Critical patent/EP0889410A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0889410B1 publication Critical patent/EP0889410B1/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/16—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
    • G06F11/20—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
    • G06F11/2053—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where persistent mass storage functionality or persistent mass storage control functionality is redundant
    • G06F11/2089—Redundant storage control functionality
    • G06F11/2092—Techniques of failing over between control units
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
    • G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
    • G06F11/16—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
    • G06F11/20—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
    • G06F11/2097—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated

Abstract

A method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises a primary controller, a secondary controller having the same address as that of the primary controller, a switching circuit coupled to the primary and secondary controllers, and a control circuit coupled to the switching circuit. According to this preferred embodiment of the invention, in a normal operation, the control circuit sets the switching circuit so that the primary controller receives and responds to input data supplied from a host, and the secondary controller receives the input data. In a fail-over operation in which the primary controller fails, the control circuit sets the switching circuit so that the primary controller is disabled, and the secondary controller receives and responds to the input data supplied from the host. The fail-over is transparent to the host. The apparatus may further comprise a data storage device coupled to both the primary and secondary controllers. An alternative preferred embodiment of the invention is also provided.
EP98305034A 1997-06-26 1998-06-25 Method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices Expired - Lifetime EP0889410B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US883923 1997-06-26
US08/883,923 US6070251A (en) 1997-06-26 1997-06-26 Method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0889410A2 EP0889410A2 (en) 1999-01-07
EP0889410A3 true EP0889410A3 (en) 1999-01-13
EP0889410B1 EP0889410B1 (en) 2003-02-05

Family

ID=25383594

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP98305034A Expired - Lifetime EP0889410B1 (en) 1997-06-26 1998-06-25 Method and apparatus for high availability and caching data storage devices

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (1) US6070251A (en)
EP (1) EP0889410B1 (en)
JP (1) JPH11120092A (en)
DE (1) DE69811150T2 (en)

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US6629216B1 (en) 1999-06-30 2003-09-30 Emc Corporation Fibre channel by-pass
US6567890B1 (en) 1999-06-30 2003-05-20 Emc Corporation Fibre channel port by-pass selector section for dual ported disk drives
US6581136B1 (en) 1999-06-30 2003-06-17 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system having expansion/contraction
US6636934B1 (en) * 1999-06-30 2003-10-21 Emc Corporation Fiber channel port by-pass selector section for dual ported disk drives
US6571355B1 (en) 1999-12-29 2003-05-27 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system fail-over mechanism
US6615315B1 (en) 1999-12-29 2003-09-02 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system having improved fro-end I/O adapted hub
US6574687B1 (en) 1999-12-29 2003-06-03 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system
US6560683B1 (en) 1999-12-29 2003-05-06 Emc Corporation Fibre channel data storage system having improved rear-end I/O adapted hub
US6389559B1 (en) * 2000-05-24 2002-05-14 Mti Technology Corporation Controller fail-over without device bring-up
US6625747B1 (en) * 2000-06-30 2003-09-23 Dell Products L.P. Computer storage system and failover method
US6877042B2 (en) 2001-01-02 2005-04-05 Dell Products L.P. System and method for generating world wide names
US7293105B2 (en) * 2001-12-21 2007-11-06 Cisco Technology, Inc. Methods and apparatus for implementing a high availability fibre channel switch
ITTO20020160A1 (en) * 2002-02-25 2003-08-25 Magneti Marelli Sistemi Elettr CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENT IN AN ELECTRONIC CONTROL MODULE FOR THE CONVERSION BETWEEN COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS.
US7019965B2 (en) * 2002-09-30 2006-03-28 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Ejector mechanism and a carrier including same
US6964524B2 (en) * 2002-12-19 2005-11-15 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Interconnecting device for a data processing system
US6881078B1 (en) 2002-12-19 2005-04-19 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Interconnecting device that allows for connections in small space
US7216150B2 (en) * 2002-12-19 2007-05-08 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Apparatuses and methods of physically restricting access to a connecting device for use with a data processing system
US7317689B1 (en) 2003-02-10 2008-01-08 Foundry Networks, Inc. System and method to access and address high-speed interface converter devices
JP4080970B2 (en) 2003-07-30 2008-04-23 株式会社日立製作所 Switch that provides path switching
US20050058063A1 (en) * 2003-09-15 2005-03-17 Dell Products L.P. Method and system supporting real-time fail-over of network switches
US8145945B2 (en) * 2010-01-04 2012-03-27 Avaya Inc. Packet mirroring between primary and secondary virtualized software images for improved system failover performance
US8656211B2 (en) 2011-02-18 2014-02-18 Ca, Inc. Avoiding failover identifier conflicts
US9442672B2 (en) * 2013-11-08 2016-09-13 Globalfoundries Inc. Replicating data across controllers
TWI732233B (en) * 2019-06-24 2021-07-01 竹北動力股份有限公司 Control system and control method

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JPS607548A (en) * 1983-06-27 1985-01-16 Fujitsu Ltd Automatic switch controller
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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0889410A2 (en) 1999-01-07
DE69811150T2 (en) 2003-11-27
DE69811150D1 (en) 2003-03-13
JPH11120092A (en) 1999-04-30
EP0889410B1 (en) 2003-02-05
US6070251A (en) 2000-05-30

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